Bath and shower gel for large items like knee & shin guards or actual body armour/suit.

Used to put in the machine on a cold wash for years but after some leg armour (knee-shin) got caught up between the drum and whatever which mellted and cut the plastic in two, i’ve always soaked and rinsed in the bath.

Aye, plastic stuff can melt in a washing machine. For me- soft stuff, goes in washing machine. D30 stuff or hard stuff, either in the bath, or put it in a bucket and poke it with a stick. And if day-to-day stuff can’t be machine washed with normal powder etc it’s no use to me

Armour always gos in the machine with the rest of my kit, not had a problem yet. If it’s really stinky (i.e. after a holliday) pre wash with a big glug of detol otherwise it stinks as soon as it get’s warm/moist again.

I use laundry gel and give it all a bit of a lather up (fnarr fnarr) in the bathtub and rinse it off. Find laundry gel does a decent job without actually having to mess with the tablets, powder etc and i’ve always got it in the camping box for holiday washing.

i never washed my ice hockey pads either (nobody did/does??) and the smell of my bike/sk8 pads takes me back to a rose-tinted version of my childhood growing up on the outdoor ice rinks in the deepest, darkest wilds of toronto, canada…